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Topic: Ordination, marriage and priesthood (Read 2566 times)

Have read, that in the States in some eastern catholic jurisdictions it is possible for the priest to marry.But isnÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â´t this against the long eastern tradition, that the priest candidate must marry before the ordination?!?.Or not...

I've met the son of a married Eastern Rite Catholic, but his father got married before ordination and the dispensation for his father to be ordained came directly from Rome. I haven't heard of cases of Catholics of any rite being married after ordination, personally.

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"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."" Isaac Asimov

I suspect that this more likely one of those things where people fail to describe Church practices accurately. A number of times I've seen Roman catholics claim that we allow our priests to marry and have had to explain that we allow married men to be ordained but we don't allow ordained priests to marry. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the same is true re. Eastern Rite Catholics and that this is just woolly language or a misunderstanding.

James

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We owe greater gratitude to those who humble us, wrong us, and douse us with venom, than to those who nurse us with honour and sweet words, or feed us with tasty food and confections, for bile is the best medicine for our soul. - Elder Paisios of Mount Athos

Right now, there is a Roman cardinal in charge of this kind of disciplinary stuff who has let it be known that he is willing to look the other way when it comes to letting Eastern Catholic clergy get married before being ordained in North America. So long as he is in charge of this stuff, they are probably okay on this. When this cardinal dies or gives up his office, it might revert again to the way it was before. That is, absolutely forbidding candidates for the priesthood to marry. If it goes this way again, some will probably try a trick that has worked in the past. It happened like this: Ukranian Catholic candidates for the priesthood used to get married, get ordained deacon, get transferred to the Ukraine where it was "legit" to be a married priest, get ordained to the priesthood there, and then be given "on loan" to a North American diocese which had been agreed upon by all concerned in advance. I don't know if other Eastern Catholics have resorted to similar means in the past.

It's not possible for a priest to marry, but it is possible for a married man to be ordained in the Eastern Catholic Churches and I know a few of them.ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ Sometimes they're just ordained here, sometimes they're ordained abroad. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡

There are also married men (generally ex-Lutheran or Anglican/Episcopalian clergy) who have been ordained in the Roman Church.ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡

O Lord although I desired to blot outwith my tears the handwriting of my many sinsAnd for the rest of my life to please Thee through sincere repentanceYet doth the enemy lead me astray as he wareth against my sould with his cunning

FYI, a married deacon was just ordained to the priesthood in the Parma Eparchy of the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church. The Slovak Eparchy (canadian equivalent to the Ruthenians in the usa) ordained a married man to the priesthood not too long ago.The rules are the same. A man must be married before he is ordained a deacon or a priest. The Roman Catholic Church will ordained married men if they come over as Anglicans or other hi-protestant church ministers. Something I find not fair to cradle Roman Catholics.

"Right now, there is a Roman cardinal in charge of this kind of disciplinary stuff who has let it be known that he is willing to look the other way when it comes to letting Eastern Catholic clergy get married before being ordained in North America."

Where did you read this? The Ban of 1929 was superceded by the the promulgation of the CCEO. The particular law of each Eastern Catholic Church determines the regulations on the celibacy of clergy. With the Byzantine Catholic Church ordaining a married man last Sunday every Byzantine jurisdiction in the US has resumed ordaining married men on US soil. Cardinals have nothing to do with it.

Where did you read this? The Ban of 1929 was superceded by the the promulgation of the CCEO. The particular law of each Eastern Catholic Church determines the regulations on the celibacy of clergy. With the Byzantine Catholic Church ordaining a married man last Sunday every Byzantine jurisdiction in the US has resumed ordaining married men on US soil. Cardinals have nothing to do with it.

I'm sorry Deacon Lance, but I have to insist on this. I am sure of my information. I heard it directly from the mouth of a prominent Eastern Catholic canonist and also read about it in an Eastern Catholic journal, which was complaining about the acrobatics needed to be ordained to the priesthood right into the 1990's. CCEO rules on this do not apply in North America.